There has long been a need to provide a system, method and device which can rapidly enter, communicate, distribute and/or retrieve data and display the data in a timely fashion for a variety of applications. Such a system and method could be utilized to immediately access and rapidly display information relevant to new consumer products, financial information, real estate listings, travel accommodations and special events or performances and the like at an end user station as well as provide timely updates of such information. The device could be conveniently located in a home, office or hotel and could be conveniently transported.
It would be desirable to provide a system in which both queries and corresponding responses could be processed at a remote server and then transmitted in either a compressed or non-compressed format back to an end user station (EUS).
It is thus a principal object of the present invention to provide a system which facilitates the timely display of data which may be transmitted by a remote host/server to an EUS in compressed or non-compressed formats.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a remote query communication system (hereinafter "RQCS") which can be accessed via a direct dial telephone system, a CATV system or an auxiliary input/output means such as FM radio.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a system in which data communication and/or query processing is provided in at least plural end user stations plus intermediaries such as a concentrator between the downloading and a display device and at least one server in a distributed system.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a remote query communication system incorporating an asymmetric compression/decompression system in which data compressed utilizing a powerful server is decompressed utilizing a less powerful end-user station.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a remote query communication system in which the end user station is mobile.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide an RQCS which can select from a stream of packeted responses faster than real time electronic data signal packets data and which is responsive to a query selecting any specified query answer in a multi-tasked signal and/or graphic and/or animation providing data environment.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide on RCQS which can store a downloaded preferably at least in part highly compressed (&gt;20:1) query answer packet further can repeatedly redisplay parts and/or all of packeted data on an end-user command further having a new in part and/or total query answer data replacement/storage data.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide an end user system which provides multiple replay.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide for an optional EUS query selection and/or preselected program/presentation downloading capability optionally at preselected scheduled times by an EUS operator subscriber.
It is still a further objective of the present invention to provide a system in which selection and/or presentation is system wide.
These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent from the Summary and Detailed Description which follow.